New experinces

                Starting my student teaching this month has been a great experience thus far. I had eagerly awaited the start of student teaching and am ready to make my last semester the best one yet!

            This is my first experience with teaching seniors and though I was a little intimidated at first I have found my college prep classes to be the highlight of my day. Currently they are reading Oedipus Rex and the discussions in these classes are on a completely different level than I have experienced in the high school setting thus far. Being able to delve deeper into symbolism, motifs, etc. really inspires me to make more varied and challenging lesson plans.

The sophomore classes are a little more challenging than I had anticipated. A large proportion of this class tends to be lax on their assignments, and a number of students seem to not care about their grades at all. When planning assignments for these classes a vast amount of time must be allotted for competition and this I feel is disadvantageous to the few students who are excelling and able to quickly finish their assignments. I would like to find a strategy that would better help every student in this class reach their full potential instead of limiting the information and holding back those that could obviously take on harder challenges. Any suggestions or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

            The honors freshman classes are going as expected as I have been working with honors freshman with this CT since core 2. Soon I will begin to teach Romeo and Juliet within these classes and am greatly looking forward to it. This will be my first opportunity to teach Shakespeare and planning for it has been a great experience. There are so many different avenues and ideas to approach and selecting which I feel will be best is sometimes be stressful. It seems I always have to cut things I wish to do.  I remember thinking planning for 80 minute class periods everyday would be challenging now I wish classes were longer.

            I had an interesting experience earlier this week as Monday my CT lost her voice. I was thrown into teaching every class for the day and had no preparation time. Though everything went remarkably well it was a bit jarring at first. The first class I gave a lecture with the aid of PowerPoint over Archetype. Though I had not previously seen the PowerPoint I feel this is where understanding our content area really helps come into play. By already having a strong grasp and knowledge of different archetypes, I was able to lecture on them without feeling lost or worried. Tuesday my CT had to take the day off and I was once again thrust into teaching the days lessons. Luckily I was given a sub that didn’t interfere and spent the day reading at the teacher’s desk. These two days of being able to have complete control helped reinforce my belief that I truly want nothing more than to be a teacher.

            Though I know I will run into some bumps this semester and it can’t possibly continue to go as smoothly as it has thus far I am enjoying it while it lasts. I look forward to finishing my lesson plans, seeing what goes well, and what does not, and most of all from learning from my mistakes.

 

Genre Reflection #2

Fitting In

Laughing loudly at all the right times,

Lost in the days of their prime,

Hoping Someone would notice by the bell,

Waiting for something that only time would tell.

Forced in the class by Mom and Dad,

Some know that things will end bad.

Trying their hardest from day one,

And knowing that in the end what’s done is Done.

Teaching the willing was never a chore,

And helping the Hopeful was never a bore.

But some kids were never cheery,

And somehow always seemed dreary.

Yet day after day, and week after week

They all seemed to meet a peak.

In the end, they all have their way,

Never knowing just how things will pay.

Nervously they watched for the freak,

Who would knock them from their peak.

The cheery kids became the Weary,

And the Dreary ones became the cheery.

When all the needs came before,

All would drop and help restore.

As the going got rough, they made some fun

Hoping to return to their days in the sun.

Rebelling against Mom and Dad,

No one knows what they might have had.

Standing alone they could only yell,

But together all seemed well.

Working as a team, they climb

Reaching for the stars in their prime.

 

Respect in the Classroom

     The last month in the classroom has been awesome! we have just finished reading Animal Farm and besides a few behavioral hiccups all is going well. The students have enjoyed the novel though they did struggle with the link to communism at first.

     The only real issue we have had is one week when I was gone for the KATE conference and my CT was sick. This was the first time this year the students were left without one of us and they tried to take full advantage of it. The principal had to be called in 3 times and 5 students had to be removed from the classroom.

     The next class when we returned we lectured over classroom expectations even when a sub is there. Also, we assigned a two page essay over proper classroom behavior. This assignment I felt was unfair to some of the students whom most likely were not involved in the mischief; however, we did not want to show any favoritism.Though a few students complained at first they were able to see why we made it a classwide assignment. I wish we would have been able to come up with a better option, but I am still not sure what that would have been.

Expectations vs Reality

     I recently had the opportunity to attend the KATE conference. I had high expectations going in with hopes of gaining a plethora of knowledge to apply to the classroom. I don't know if it was the buildup for it or the fact I set my expectations so high, but I left the conference feeling a little let down. Not to say it was all bad there were some great moments, it just wasn't what I had expected.

    The breakfast both days was awesome and this also allowed me time to get around and talk with peers about theirs plans for the day at the seminar. Also, the initial key note speaker was great. She had planned activities that made me look at things from a different view point, showed a new way to look at poetry that I will be able to use in the classroom, and never seemed to be bragging or trying to sell me something. Had my seminars I attended all went like this the conference would have far surpassed my expectations.

     The first seminar I attended while interesting had a focus towards the elementary levels, while interesting I felt I really wasn't gaining much of value from the lecture. The books on poetry they had brought to showcase were aimed at a k-5 level and much of the lecture was about getting young children to write poetry.

    The next session seemed to be hit and miss for me. It was suppose to have a focus towards young adult literature, which at the beginning was the case. however, as the lecture progressed it seemed to deteriorate into a Common Core Bashing session. Had the session been able to stay with the initial topic I feel I would have really enjoyed this session; instead I left thinking about what it could have been.

    At lunch I headed out with friends to get some food and we rushed back to see the lunch keynote speaker. I really hoped it would be inspiring like the one I had witnessed in the morning. What I found was a man giving the opposite speech of what I had heard earlier in the day instead of bashing common core he was touting how great it was. This was followed with what seemed to be a sales pitch for his books.

     I know common core is a hot topic right now and I hope that is why the conference was plagued with seminar after seminar debating the merits of it and going off topic from their initial presentation. This is not to say all the sessions ended up this way/ I went to one very enjoyable session where the presenter commented jokingly that his presentation would be common core free. This presentation showcased a history lesson on "The Little Red School House." During the presentation he gave the history of the little red school houses across the US and showed pictures from a trip he had taken to see a number of them. This provided a much needed break from the common core debate and was very enjoyable. Likewise I was able to attend a session that showed how to relate the importance of protecting our past through archeology and how to relate it to the English classroom.

     I do plan to attend next year and hopefully after some of the excitement of common core has started to die down we can have more seminars that focus on teacher development and less on common core positive and negatives.

Genre Reflection

The Lost Student

            Imagine a classroom where you feel you do not belong, a classroom you never wished to be in, quite frankly a classroom where you feel destined to fail. This is the reality for one young girl who never did well in English classes, but suddenly found herself placed in Honors English I her first year of high school. Struggling with the assignments she put on the façade acting as if she doesn’t do the assignment to be “cool,” when in reality she is too scared to try fir fear of her friends finding out she isn’t “smart enough” to be there.

            This was not always the case however. When first coming into the class she had hopes of succeeding, of impressing her friends and family, and creating a new school identity for herself. But upon completion of her first essay the dread that filled her eyes was clear, the amount of red marks on her paper staring back at her, with the unmistakable F telling her that she had tried, yet still failed. This demoralized every fiber of her being. From this point on she resided to not even try at her assignments, to act like she failed, because the assignment didn’t matter to her, and to act out to get laughs from her peers, when her secret might be in jeopardy.

            The breaking point arrived the day of class reading. She sat with her heart pounding hoping in vain that no one would call on her to read. Alas, this was not to be the case as she heard her name called and felt all the eyes upon her she struggled to find an escape.  With no clear way out she took the only way she could think of. Knowing the repercussions could be severe she threw her book to the floor an yelled, “I don’t read and you sure ain’t going to make me!”

            Being quickly escorted out into the hall her strength and façade quickly faded upon exiting the threshold of the room. Breaking down and confiding her fear, worries, and lack of belonging to the instructor, she knew that the instructor may help, but she also knew things couldn’t possibly be worse. To her wonder the instructor explained options to her and said she would help to have her placed into a normal classroom. Though it won’t be instant she now has hope once again for the future.

Taking Over The Class

                              

       Starting the 16th of this month I took control of the class to begin teaching my three week lesson over The Odyssey. Leading up to the lesson the students were excited to have me take over the class asking a plethora of questions the following week. This gave me great encouragement that they would be as respectable as they had been the previous weeks with my CT. However, the first day of my teaching I found out this wood not be the case and had to re-establish control over the class. Students were quick to get off task, talking became a huge issue, and questions not relating to the assignment in an attempt to side track the lesson became abundant.
    
     During the first lesson once I realized I was starting to lose control of the classroom I stopped my lesson and started watching the clock. When I stopped this garnered a great deal of student attention with them asking me what I was doing. Once I told them I was waiting for them to quiet back down and focus with the intent of holding them after class for every second of my time they wasted class came quickly back on track for the rest of the day.  For the rest of the week this strategy helped to keep the class focused and on task. Also my CT suggested we start awarding achieve points for students being on task without excessive talking if they follow these simple rules they gain 10 additional points for the period.

    Coming into the lesson I had high expectations and was excited to have full control of the classroom for such and extended period of time. Knowing everyone has their own teaching style there have been many times when I have watched an instructor teach a lesson and think I would have really like it if such and such was done differently and this finally presented the opportunity for me to do just that. What I didn't realize was the struggle to come up with lesson that would keep the students engaged and excited one assignment that I thought would be most enjoyable (a short comic strip) bombed with most students who didn't wish to draw, while another assignment I thought they might not enjoy as much (writing a 1 page paper from a different character point of view) they loved and asked to be able to write more than 1 page.

   This has been a great experience seeing how difficult it can be to budget time, keep students engaged, and vary the lesson from day to day has been more challenging than I anticipated. I remember when I first started planning thinking how am I going to fill an hour and a half everyday without becoming mundane and now I wish classes were 2 hours long as time seems to go extremely quickly while teaching.


     So far I have received a great deal of positive feedback over my lessons with my CT offering comments after each class. Wednesday the Vice Principal came in while I was teaching and told me it seemed to be going really well when I was leaving the building and Friday there was a sub who said I appeared to be a natural teacher. With this constant encouragement it feels good to know that I am not completely bombing and letting my students down.
                                                   

Being On The Other Side of The Desk

                I can’t say enough how much I am enjoying being at me placement.  In past classes it always seemed a challenge to get the students to participate in discuss; however, with this class we often have to curtail the discussion to make sure there is time for everything planned. Since my last post the students have read Jack London’s To Build a Fire and Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game.

                With To Build a Fire we used the story to teach imagery and descriptive wording.  The students had to find 10 examples of imagery in the story and write why they thought each example was important. Next they had to find 5 words with a strong connotation and replace it with a word of their choosing. Finally they wrote a one page descriptive essay of a family member. We banned a number of plain words such as “tall, large, and skinny.” A number of students had trouble with this at first only thinking to put what one would find on a drivers license.  Though as other students started interjecting what they were putting everyone started to get the idea. One students description of her sister was harsh, yet received much laughter from her class mates with phrases such as “saying my sister looks like a beached whale would do an injustice to whales.” This assignment sparked into a lot of fun for the students thinking of how to paint an image rather than giving basic information.

                With the Most Dangerous Game we were able to teach different types of conflict. After the reading students were to define Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Environment, and Man vs. Society then use a quote from the text to make support their claim. This was an especially interesting assignment for me as my CT found out she had 30 minutes to turn in a student review and left me to teach the assignment. After the students had finished their definitions and examples I led a discussion in which students shared what they had wrote and gave comparisons to each other. They seemed to struggle most with Man vs. Society , but after explaining how the society of the island was controlled by the antagonist and our protagonist struggle against it they started to get the concept. I was extremely pleased that the students still met expectations with me teaching just as if my CT had been and this gives me a great outlook for the rest of the semester with this class.

                I will start teaching a lesson over selected books from the Odyssey on the 16^th and planning for it has been rather interesting. With past lessons I have only had to plan for one day here I started planning it for a 2 week time frame and now have negotiated 3 weeks! I’ve learned that as educators there are many ideas we may wish to incorporate into a lesson; however, with time constraints this is not feasible. Trying to decide what to cut out and what to leave in has been a chore of patience every time I think I have exactly what I want I will look an hour later and start changing it again. With there being a state assessment of their essays at the end of the reading I feel a lot of pressure to make sure they really have the points reinforced to adequately write on the essay prompt. I’m more worried about how they will do than I have ever been for myself on a test as I feel their achievement will be a reflection on how well I conveyed the work.  

                Other than that I’m just trying to stay focused between class work, planning, and prestudent teaching I find  I will not be having much of a life this semester, yet everyday that I’m in the classroom reminds me that I’m fine with that. I really couldn't think of anything I would rather be doing and having a career that I love is worth any compromises I may have to make to get there.